Albany's Enso Ink competes for 200k from Miller Lite

Enso Ink co-owners John Bowers and Chris Moriarity (second and third from right) pose with Shark Tank’s Daymond Johnson (second from left) and other judges from the Tap the Future competition.(Photo: Courtesy of Miller Lite)

Enso Ink, a start-up company based in Albany, is in the running for a $200,000 grant from — of all organizations — Miller Lite.

The business, launched in 2011 and creator of a unique lotion for tattoos, is one of five finalists in the beer brand's Tap the Future competition, a nationwide business contest that mirrors the format of ABC's Shark Tank.

In July, Enso Ink and the company's four co-owners attended a regional competition in Los Angeles, where entrepreneurs across the West Coast pitched their business models to a panel of venture capitalists. Enso Ink stood out, winning a prize of $20,000 and an invitation to compete in Chicago for the top prize of $200,000, squaring off against the winners from four other regions.

The national contest took place over the weekend, and the winner will be announced Sept. 18. Chris Moriarity, one of the owners, called the national contest "very intense."

"With $200,000, it's obviously very serious. They want the money to go to something that can be successful," Moriarity said. "The money comes as a grant. You don't have to give up a percentage of ownership — it's purely an injection of capital that you can use for the business."

"We were watching some of the teams come out, and you could tell it was not going well for some of them," he added with a laugh.

Enso Ink's lotion is intended to do two things: enhance the appearance of the tattoo, and preserve the tattoo by caring for the skin it covers. Moriarity said the lotion uses silicon oils that reflect sunlight, a key reason tattoos fade over time, and simultaneously give the tattoo a shine that emphasizes its colors.

Two of the three other owners, John Bowers and Dr. Carson Kutsch, both live in Salem and work out of Albany. The fourth, Jason Hamlin of Medford, also owns an apparel company and has helped supply Enso Ink with celebrity sponsorship. It was Moriarity though who applied to compete in Tap the Future — and thinking it was a long shot, he didn't even tell the others about it.

"I thought, 'it's a promotional contest. Nobody wins those things, right?' " he said. "I'd kind of forgotten about it, and all of a sudden I got a call from Miller Lite saying we were a (regional) finalist."

Moriarity said even if the company doesn't win the grand prize, they will be able to do a lot with the $20,000 they won in Los Angeles.

"Even if we don't win the big one, we'll still be able to do a lot with the money we've won," Moriarity said. "It's still a big victory."

"It's straight e-commerce right now. But midway through next year, it will be available through retail," he said of the product.